2007 season starts here
By John Dickinson on 13th Apr 07
IT'S official! the 2007 off-road riding season is up, it's running and going flat-out for the horizon...
...OK, for some clubs the ‘season' has been on the go for a while, some clubs never even stop and just run their meetings: trials, motocross, enduro, come what may, 365 days a year. But historically Easter heralds the start of the mythical ‘season', especially for motocross, and as last weekend was indeed Easter we are now, officially, up and running.
The historic bit is important actually. Back in the dim and distant past, which only people of a great age can now remember (we know who we are!) there were indeed distinct sporting seasons. Trials was a mainly winter activity and scrambles, which of course morphed into motocross, was the preferred two-wheel sport for the summer months. This came about from when those involved in motorcycle sport were invariably - how can I say this - perhaps less than well-off. Believe it or not but a single motorcycle used to suffice for a variety of uses. It was not unusual for a chap to mod his bike for trials in the winter, scrambles (and grass track) in the summer and in between use it for going to work on. The modifications were actually minimal, possibly only a change to lower gearing for the trials!
In the northern centre, in the 1950s the legendary Jack Forster used to transport his family in a sidecar, attached to his venerable Velocette, to summer scrambles. The wife and kids then alighted, the sidecar was detached and Jack would then battle for the lead in the solo scrambles before re-attaching the sidecar, rounding up the family and heading home at the end of the day. Just to add a touch of spice, the Velo had a penchant for bending its exhaust valve when being used hard - which was all the time - and Jack was occasionally to be found with the head removed, gently tapping the errant valve straight with a suitable stone borrowed from a wall-top, using the wall as a workbench!
All of which must sound like some kind of far-fetched Monty Python inspired comedy sketch to those of you brought-up on several brand-new bikes each year which are transported to events in the lap of luxury in a multi-thousand pound motorhome. But like it or lump it, this really was the beginning and the cornerstone of the sport as you know it and love it today.
Sure, I've veered a little off-course here but only to illustrate how we originally, loosely, started the trials-in-winter, scrambles-in-summer calendar. The fact that scrambles better-suited those long, balmy summer days (weren't they always?) and trials the interminably wet winter months (weren't they always?) helps make more sense of this.
I recall once reading a magazine article where the author (writing under a preudonym, I think) stated how he looked forward to autumn each year in order to savour, -the wonderful smell of exhaust-cooked mud and leaves which heralded the opening of the trials season.- Or something like that. I know it was well-written and I wished I had thought of it - and maybe one day I will!
Of course, the rampant specialisation which started in the 1960s and which eventually saw off-roaders split into either scramblers and trials rider (although there were always those who competed in both) then brought about the extension of both the scrambles and trials seasons until, to bring the story up to date, they have to a greater extent now blurred into one another.
The trials season in particular, especially at Championship level, both British and World, has most noticeably moved from being a winter activity to very much a summer one. I understand the underlying reasons, better weather, more (in theory) spectators not to mention more pleasant riding conditions. The downside is that many of the trials have lost their individuality and bred a generation of riders who look aghast if asked to ride in the mud and wet and cold.
Motocross has continued to plough its muddy furrow across the summer months with the various championships, at whatever level, played out between March and October.
Which is more or less where we came in - while trials, enduro and more recently the explosion of hare and hounds events keep the sport ticking over nicely through the dark days of winter, Easter remains the light at the end of the tunnel and signals the ‘real' start of the New Year as far as off road motorcycle sport goes.
It's Easter - the season starts here!